US Calls For Technocratic Government In Ukraine

Sergei Supinsky/AFPMaidan self-defence activists stand guard in front of the Ukrainian parliament during a session, in Kiev, on February 24, 2014.

The United States Monday stopped short of fully endorsing Ukraine's interim leader Oleksandr Turchynov as its legitimate ruler, but called for a technocratic government in Kiev to promote early elections.

White House spokesman Jay Carney noted that President Viktor Yanukovych was "not actively leading the country at present" and that Washington could not confirm where he was.

Carney said that the White House had seen that the Ukrainian parliament had "lawfully elected its new speaker" and supported efforts to get the political situation under control and "ensuring that the institutions of government are working."

Asked whether the United States therefore saw Turchynov as the legitimate leader of Ukraine, Carney simply repeated the phrase that Washington had seen he had been elected leader of parliament.

President Barack Obama's spokesman said the United States was preoccupied with promoting a non violent process in Ukraine that resulted in a multiparty technocratic government that could help move towards early elections.

He also stressed that the United States believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Obama spoke on the crisis on Friday, had an interest in ensuring a peaceful transition of power in Kiev.

"There is no contradiction in Ukraine and Ukraine's people deciding to move forward with further integration with Europe while Ukraine and the Ukrainian people maintain their strong historic cultural and economic ties to Russia."

"We believe that's entirely appropriate."

Russia's prime minister Dmitry Medvedev earlier branded Ukraine's new leaders as mutineers after they took control after the flight from Kiev of Yanukovych and that western nations which thought otherwise were deluded.